Table of Contents
With the recent announcement of Counter Strike 2 by Valve, players have been left wondering what new features will Source 2 bring to the table. How will it differ from the original Source engine?
CSGO on Source 2 engine
After years of data mining, rumours, leaks, and speculations, Counter-Strike 2 has been officially announced by Valve. But what is actually Counter-Strike 2? Well, it isn’t a brand new game, as many have expected but rather an engine port for CS:GO, which currently runs on the original Source engine released back in 2004 with Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source. Quite a lengthy lifespan for one of the most popular competitive video games in existence. Almost two decades have passed for Countr-Strike on the Source engine so Valve decided that the game needed an upgrade.
CS2 Source 2 engine features
With what we have been provided by Valve on their official website and on their YouTube channel, these are the most important features of the new Counter-Strike 2 game:
- Responsive smokes
The new smoke system in Source 2 works quite cleverly and it’s something we haven’t seen a lot in video games so far. What this revolutionary smoke system does, is create 3d volumetric smoke cubes that fill in gaps and seep around actual collision models. No more smoke that goes through walls or other collision models with this Source 2 smoke update.
Another thing to mention is the way smoke disperses when shooting bullets through it or when frag grenades explode inside or near a smoke grenade. This will change the meta and dynamics of the core gameplay for Counter-Strike players, as smokes seem to be nerfed while frag grenades have more than one use.
- Lighting and level design
As seen in the first proper Source 2 engine game by Valve, Half-Life Alyx back in 2020, realistic lighting is an essential part of the new Source engine. It’s not 100% known yet how much of an impact this will have on CS2 gameplay but I’m sure some players will complain while others will love the new photorealistic lighting effects.
Apart from realistic lighting, models, graphics, and the overall look of Counter-Strike 2 maps will receive a big boost in fidelity and quality as showcased by Counter-Strike YouTuber 3kliksphilip in his video.
One thing is for sure, Dust 2 is looking prettier than ever with Source 2!
- Dynamic tick rate
What is tick rate? Well, it’s a time increment that a server is accounting for while players perform actions in a match. For instance, official Valve servers have always used a 64 tick rate per second system, meaning that if you clicked a shot in between these tick rates, it will count and register your shot at the last tick between the two. It’s a slight inconvenience for casual players and a big-time issue for e-sports and pro players as these small differences can mean the loss or win of a multi-million dollar tournament.
There are ways to create 128 tick rate servers with a little patience (there are plenty of tutorials out there), but Valve has moved two steps forward with its brand-new tick rate system.
The new Counter-Strike 2 tick rate system works like so: Whenever you perform an action (shoot a gun, move, jump, etc.), the server marks a tick in the timeline, thus excluding the “in-between ticks issue” that has been controversial in the Counter-Strike community for the past titles.
- Ragdoll bodies piling up on each other
As shown by 3kliksphilip in this clip, ragdoll bodies will pile up on each other, creating an interesting potential cover dynamic for the tight hallways of Dust 2 and also on other maps.
- Molotov liquid shader
As seen before in previous Source 2 games, Half-Life Alyx to be more specific, the new game engine is capable of producing a convincing liquid inside a bottle using a graphics shader, a realistic touch and an update that will be present in CS2 for the Molotov bottle.
- 3d bullet holes
In the previous CSGO Source engine, bullet holes were 2d alpha textures that were put on top of the models you shot at. Well, this isn’t the case anymore with Source 2, as all bullet holes are 3d models carved inside the material you’re shooting at.
Even the bullet wounds on players look gruesome and realistic with 3d depth to each bullet hole, it’s quite gnarly! This has been seen again in Half-Life Alyx while shooting the Combine soldiers or Zombies.
- Modular levels
This feature actually divides some scenes within a map (like the buy menu, skyboxes, menus, and other stages), into different individual maps.
Speculation* This way you’ll get the most FPS and performance out of the core map loaded as the primary one.
- Graphics options visualisation
CS2 will now feature a real-time scene render with two characters and a few buildings and objects behind so you can see how each individual graphics option will look after enabling it and testing it in a match. This will give players the chance to fiddle with the graphics in a controlled environment without having to apply changes and then go into the game to see the differences.
To visualise some of these updates, check out Piliph’s awesome video right here:
CS2 release date
Counter-Strike 2 is set to release in the summer of 2023 as Valve states on their website:
Counter-Strike 2 arrives this summer as a free upgrade to CS:GO. So build your loadout, hone your skills, and prepare yourself for what’s next!
So Counter Strike 2 will be:
- Free-to-play and an upgrade from CSGO (CSGO will be removed or merged into CS2 if you will)
- All skills, skins, and stats will be transferred over to CS2 from CSGO
- Some well-known players (streamers, YouTubers, and PRO players) already have limited access to CS2 (Dust 2 is the only available map), check out our how to get cs2 limited test beta for more information.
As new information is coming through, I’ll do my best to update this article with new Source 2 features for Counter-Strike 2 as we go along so stay tuned for more!
